http://www.lynd-evans.com/tfr/images/RF1_enstone_outside.jpg

Guys,

Ive spoken to a contact at work about a possible trip for some members to the factory. This is a chance in a lifetime as the factory is strictly open to invited visitors only.

Let me make this clear before i start that at this present moment we are not going. However to support our application to goto the factory i need possible number of people that would like to go.

http://www.lynd-evans.com/tfr/images/RF1_enstone_inside.jpg

Enstone is the home of the Renault F1 team and everything apart from the engine is constructed by hand at the factory. I myself have been to the factory before and you get to see a hell of alot of things. This included when i went there.....

* Design Studio
* Carbon fibre fabrication area
* Making the moulds for the parts out of resin (This bit is crazy!!)
* Parts workshop.
* Car construction area
* Electronics Design and testing area
* Wind Tunnel
* When I was there we also got to see the portable housing lorry where the team works from.

Let me state some things that i can tell you for sure IF we get the ok to make the booking.

* There will be a STRICT MAXIMUM of 12 places available for the tour.
* There would be a fee of appx £50 +/- for those who do attend.
* We will only have 1 visit on 1 day. This will be a weekday only
* The visit would last an afternoon 3 hours +/- appx
* We would need to make a list of possible dates to propose to the factory for the visit.
* If we are allowed to make a booking then the date could be anytime in the next 12 months!

In addition to posting yes/no please can you post some serious reasons justifying our wanting to go and how going there will help renault's image.

PLEASE KEEP THIS THREAD SERIOUS AS IT MAY BE USED TO AID OUR APPLICATION.

More info can be found here about the enstone site.

http://www.renaultf1.com/en/team/site/enstone/index.php?news=tcm:3-43282

Dave please sticky as discussed.

I would like to go because I will get to see cars and women, I am getting excited already :lol:

Jamie,

Keep this one serious mate.

ok count me in 100%

* Carbon fibre fabrication area
do you think they could make me a bonnet on the sly :lol:

count me in also, would be well worth a visit :D

ok I think it would be interesting as my family background as well as all having been in the military, have worked in various engineering industries, such as F1, fighter jets, and Nuclear submarines so as you can understand I will continue to have a passion in this area!!!

See I can be serious :wink: :lol:

I'm there, obviously if they permitted it pics and stuff would be put on the site

Count me in, it will be nice to meet the only people who can drive faster than me, and they are limited to 70 on the road!!!
The Black Rat can go a lot faster legally!! (obviously when on a job!) :lol:

this would be good for renault uk too, think of the press that it would give them for the launch of there new F1 model..might even get in a few advance orders :wink: :wink: not from me tho, cause i'd be castrated if i even mentioned changing just yet :lol:

The R26 is launched today

www.renaultf1.com

Looks nice :)

Can those interested please be sure to vote YES

YES

Yeah that would be cool. My mate colin works there he makes the diff's i think for the F1 cars

I've voted and would love to go.

They only need to review the forums to understand that they'd be entertaining the biggest Renaultsport advocates around. I reckon we must have helped to sell a bunch of cars on Renault's behalf, so partly a reward for dedicated punters and also partly an investment that will pay back in more Renaultsport recommendations.

I think that's a good deal all round....

YES from over here!! :)

Yes, I would like to be able to visit the facilities because the chances of me getting a job there are very low. I am an Automotive Engineering student so I think it could be a good LEARNING opportunity. :D

Yes i'd be up for it

Definate from me.. looks excellent

Would be great as a renault sport enthusiast to see the real performance cars being made :)

Ok,

I shall let Press know that we have the numbers if needed....Im gonna suggest that they look to supply dates to us but ideally either before the season or during the european leg of the season....this way there is a better chance of seeing more things.

When i went it was 1 week before the season started in australia so we got to see them constructing the car

sounds fantastic though :wink:

lets try and convince them first that we should be allowed to go.

YES YES YES PLEEEEEZZZ

Me 2 :D I'd be soooooo pleased if i could go to this. Renno born and bread :lol:

Paul

Me 2 :D I'd be soooooo pleased if i could go to this. Renno born and bread :lol:

Paul

What about that nissan you had?

Sounds like a good trip hope wew can have some pics on the site after.

I'll go if you can fit me in :D

Me 2 :D I'd be soooooo pleased if i could go to this. Renno born and bread :lol:

Paul

What about that nissan you had?

Sounds like a good trip hope wew can have some pics on the site after.

Shhhhhhhhhhhhh :roll:

Fast Nissan tho!

Id be interested in goign as well. How many we got now Alex?

welll im basing it on the poll and the poll says 12+

Is the maximum 12?

yup.....the maximum per booking is 12 people....and if we can book it will only be for 1 session

YES, YES, YES ,YES, YES :D

do you think one more yes might help mike :lol: :lol:

YES

bit bigger :lol: :lol: :lol:

Yes

Well i emailed the person at work yesterday but she isnt back till monday.

Small issue though.....we have over 20 intrested people and a possible 12 slots only.

Assuming we can go how we gonna determin who goes?

pick a date and then we can find out who can definatley attend that should get the numbers down a bit, then we can have a big fight in the car park and the last 12 people still alive get on the tour?

lol.....to get into the car park there you need to go through the security gatehouse. and to get past that your name and car registration has to be on the list.

might have to arrange another meet for the fight :lol: :lol: :lol:

Semi bad news guys

I heard back today about the ****ibility of a trip. Now they didnt say no.....but they didnt say yes.

In short they are going to be discussing the possibility of a trip but this trip would be organised throught he renaultsport website as opposed to through a single member site.

Well.....we tried.

YES, i also would like a carbon fibre bonnet in my goodie bag

YES, i also would like a carbon fibre bonnet in my goodie bag

think they ignoring us mate

Alex, any news?

see my thread over at
http://www.renaultsport.co.uk/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19053

Luckily managed to get on such a trip

what a fantastic day! Early start and working nights so tired as I write this but well worth it.

Eventually found the place down a dirt track that seemed to be heading nowhere! Went to the main gates and was greeted by a french plated Espace who smiled at the now filthy yellow R26.

Took cameras even though didn't expect to be abkle to use them much. Started in the car park in our reserved spaces. (They havn't much parking space left due to come exciting new building work they are having done) Security came running up to us as we were just eyeing up all the Renaultsport cars in the car park, few 182/Cups and couple of hot meganes including an R26. They get large discounts apparantly. They soon calmed down when they relaised we wern't from Ferrari!


Plenty of shiny silver on show in the main reception. Then we met up with the two ladies from ING direct. This was their first tour. There were about 12 of us in total. Up to a nicely set out room where we were met by our man who was going to show us round during the day. We had a great lunch first then we watched a video presentation followed by a little detail from our guide about the factory and his thoughts on recent events withiin F1.

Then on to the tour. We were shown pretty much all the major areas including the carbon fibre workshop and wind tunnel testing area. We looked round last seasons cars and saw bits from the R28. Obviously our guide went into great detail about the technical side of things and the HUGE costs involved. I really can't imagine this being much far behind NASA!!

We managed a few photos as we asked if we could take some. Lyndon will be posting them shortly. Note all the trucks. Quite a rare sight apparantly as they are usually away from the factory. Parts were being packed as we stood there ready to be flown around the world.

Truly fantastic day. So managed Alpine factory and F1 factory all in 1 year :)


Regarding the question above I did ask at reception about how tours are arranged and they said they do exist either for arranged groups for companies or private tours. Contact them for details. No idea of costs though.

Hope you like the photos...

Liam

P.S All that was required to enter was to send your name and address on a postcard. My grandmother saw it and thought I might like to enter it.

Cool write up :o Glad you had a really good time. From mates I've heard that have done the Viry trip, Enstone is more relaxed than Viry when it comes to allowing pictures to be taken. Viry is nearly almost a no-no.....

I was lucky enough to get to wander round enstone over a year and half ago, there's about 70 odd photos from the day up on my flickr account somewhere (I can't access it from work).

Was lucky enough to get to go with the Renault f1 club. Really sad, but made my day parking my car outside main reception (.... I am abit of a Renault f1 fan, which is why it means alot).

Had a full on tour round areas like the 7 bed test rig (and got a demonstration of what a lap of the Barcelona looked like and also spied the new R27 nose cone on an R26), went in to the main design areas, up in to the wind tunnel, saw parts of the car being made. Had breakfast and lunch in the Comms area only two weeks after Flavio had been there addressing everyone after the win at Brazil. Went in to main reception and took pics of the shiny silver. At the time, the two world trophies were stored out the back in a cabinet so got photos of those two :) Didn't realise the constructors one was so small though.

At the time parts of the R27 were being prepped and put on to the R26, a mate of mine spotted this. I've never seen engineers whip parts off a car so fast (apart from when doing a pitstop), they knew we'd busted them. Piquet Jnr, was wandering around the office that day so he passed us while we were on tour. Then we got taken in the afternoon to the onsite gym and got to see how much training the drivers did. Had a talk off Lucas diGrassi (Heikki was meant to be there that day, but wasn't). And then anyone who wanted could have a go on one of those bat attack boards.

November 2006 was truly an awesome month, only two weeks after being at Enstone I got to go to visit the team on another trip in Barcelona watching the first of the winter f1 tests from behind the scenes :o)

Would love to go again if the chance came up........

bugger i just put a hugggge thread why i wanted to go and didnt look at the date, what a bell!

Some photos from Enstone before the change to ING livery. Rest of them are there --> http://www.flickr.com/photos/renault_fraggle/sets/72157594377934111/

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/115/298332929_e501c0bc7b.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/101/298327671_0933759d02.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/121/298327619_e3b88df1f2.jpg

here are my photos


did i mention i saw R28 parts which was great :)

http://s265.photobucket.com/albums/ii213/liam548/


or flickr

http://www.flickr.com/gp/22755305@N03/L168L7


http://liam548.vox.com/library/video/6a00e398d1a685000500e398d1ad010003.html?_c=esv1

yes, if we do manage to get a tour of the factory i wud love to go if there is a spare place for me like u said its a once in a lifetime trip, hope we get th chance and i wil b wishin that i get chose to go,

This is something ive got on my to do list for this year. The last 2 months have been a tad hectiv for me to sit down and look at anything trip related though i do have it as a priority to do.

This is something ive got on my to do list for this year. The last 2 months have been a tad hectiv for me to sit down and look at anything trip related though i do have it as a priority to do.

cool... :)

Right today I also went on a honda F1 Factory tour. Based very close to the renault one really.

Can't believe I've been lucky enough to go on two F1 factory tours in a matter of 3 weeks.

Again it was a compo that we won, Lyndon won this one by texting in when the F1 was showing last year whereas I won the Renault tour through ING direct.

I didn't tell the people on the ING tour that I also had this tour in the pipeline nor did i tell honda I'd recently been on the Renault one.
They were similar in many of their production methods but very different in others. One of the biggest surprises was to hear the Honda factory does not work round the clock unlike the Renault 1. Some photos of the day here...

Photographs were not allowed as much as they were at the Renault F1 factory.

http://www.flickr.com/gp/22755305@N03/z5M41k


Got some funny looks wearing the ING direct Renault fleece and turning up in an R26 :) Car park full of civics but saw 1 Clio 182...

cool photos :) just added you as a contact on flickr.